How To Quarantine Reptiles!
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- should you quarantine your first snake? Should you quarantine any reptile? Your first snake may be harbouring disease or snake mites just like any other reptile. Thats what makes a good quarantine procedure worth it.
One of the most overlooked aspects of this hobby, especially when more and more people are building larger collections of animals, is good quarantine procedures. Many keepers have dedicated reptile rooms, making the process of quarantine even more important, tales of mass collection infestation of snake mites are all too common. Well how should we effectively quarantine new animals?
During recent events, the word quarantine has been said so many times it seems a part of everyday life now. But what about our reptiles? Do they need quarantining? Absolutely! In the same way people are quarantined and tested for diseases, before being allowed in contact with the general population. Our recent additions to the reptiles in our care need to be isolated and screened for disease before being anywhere near the rest of the animals in our homes. Its all a part of being a responsible keeper and keeping the welfare of the animals in our care of upmost importance in our minds.
So what is a quarantine procedure and what is best practice? A quarantine procedure is keeping new arrivals isolated away from established animals in the collection. While testing for viral infections, parasites and other health issues and treating were possible to ensure a clean bill of health before allowing the animal anywhere near the rest of the animals.
All new arrivals, should ideally be kept in separate rooms to the current collection for a minimum of 6 months. During this time is it essential that we uphold strict biosecurity measures. This ideally includes the use of disposable gloves, and/or strict hand hygiene. All equipment needs to be dedicated to that quarantine area, that includes snake hooks, feeding tongs, cleaning utensils, the lot. The risk of cross contamination during this period is of upmost concern and we as keepers must be vigilant. Even showering and a change of clothes is recommended in between quarantine and the main collection of animals. The quarantined animals should be last animals tended to, the keeper should move from healthy animals to the potentially infected, rather than the reverse. Its also important that we do not feed any uneaten food or livefood that has been in contact with quarantined animals to our main collection, as the risk of cross contamination is not worth it. Humanely euthanise that feeder and dispose of it.
Ideally a vet check up would be advised for weighing and a conversation about how you would like to proceed with the screening process. Basic faecal screenings including egg counts, are things that should be a must do for any animal we get. In some cases it can be as little as £8 in the UK. Screenings can be taken as far as Haematology, biochemistry and infectious disease screening should be considered where applicable for, for example, herpesvirus, sunshine virus, ferlavirus, adenovirus. If a keeper has a large collection containing rare of expensive animals all the additional tests are well advised and save money and heartache in the long run. The welfare of a large group of animals is reason enough to consider extensive screening.
Now its important to note that even having visitors that are reptile keepers that have their own collections may potentially be a risk of cross contamination. Even visiting pet shops or visiting reptile shops can potentially be a risk. When visiting a shop, a change of clothes before you even go anywhere near your reptiles is recommended. This is something that many of us, including myself have not considered previously. In the case a very advanced keeper I consulted prior to making this, they avoid reptile products such as substrates that have come from shops entirely and stick to none reptile industry products such as childrens playsand, none reptile coir blocks and organic topsoil. All of which would not have been stored anywhere near snakes or be potentially harbouring snake mites. This is something that I have been doing also, too many times have I had to deal with snake mites when I worked in a reptile shop from bark and coco fibre. Playsand and topsoil is far cheaper anyway and is in my opinion a better option that I encourage.
Observing for symptoms of disease or other health concerns is paramount, this is the main reason that clinical set ups are used on paper towel etc, so that mites and faecal matter can be easily examined. Its important that we remember that the welfare of these animals is compromised during this time, that’s why getting on with organising screenings and getting the all clear on parasites etc, the quarantine enclosure can be made more elaborate when the keeper is comfortable that the risk of parasite infections is minimal.
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There is much id like to add to this subject so I will make more videos in the future, hope this is of use to some people as an introduction to quarantining in the meantime :)
wow! AMAZING video, will defo be sharing this and adding to my tegu uk page video list. i knew about advised 30 days quarintee. 6mnths to a year was interesting and makes perfect sense though.
i do visit reptile shops and one in particular comes to mind, i start FREAKING out about the conditions and potiental risks. i wouldnt even buy bugs from that shop. I always wash my hands since visiting that shop, now its any reptile shop.
Very interesting point about buying non reptile substrate.
I have a baby tegu in quarantee, shes on the kitchen table, luckly i did decide that as she has parasites. so now i am freaking about my others, as u say being very mindful of feeding equipment and no recycling food so to speak. I using more hand sanitiser to prevent cross contamination of my animals than i have felt needed for covid lol I also use F10 and hand washing.
Thank you, glad it was of use, Im the same, such a clean freak about everything! And thats the best way to be. A good way to imagine things is imagine wet paint, if you use gloves in one enclosure, imagine those gloves are covered in wet paint and you cant touch anything or you will spread paint everywhere, so you have to change gloves betweeen enclosures, tools etc. I disinfect everything after every use regardless. Are you getting her tested? Thanks for watching!
@@ReptilesandResearch she a rehome so had a history of prolapsing, i known the owner through fb for 4mnths and not other reported issues. husbandry and too much time spend outside of enclosure has added to prolapsin issues. we done first does on panacur and we have another in a wk, then another dose in 2 wks. then poo will b tested. I used PALS fecal 2 so a good test everything else was good. i may vet the vet to have a look at my 2 poo sample just to b safe as i have brumation rapidly approaching and as a first timer i am worrying so rather pay get things ticked off and have a little less worry
Another really good video Liam.
Thank you!
Great Video!!
Thanks 🙂
Great video!
Thanks!
What I'm wondering is, if you're getting your first snake, and you want to put it in a bioactive vivarium, do you need to have a second basic vivarium as well to quarantine it in before you can move it into the final bioactive set-up?? (Since from my understanding you'd have to rip a bioactive enclosure apart to clean it if it's inhabitant brought in mites). This seems very wasteful if you don't want to grow the collection in the future, but it seems like the alternative would be keeping it in a basic RUB with paper towels for two weeks, and possibly still having to buy extra heating/lighting for that RUB? And would you recommend sending off for checkups again if you're rehoming the reptile from a source like the RSPCA that have already done vetinary checks?
Sorry for the long question, but even after having done a marine biology degree myself and having experience of fishkeeping in the past (with all the conflicting info and bad pet shop advice that plague that community as well), researching reptile keeping can be confusing!
If its the only animal then you can just keep the enclosure minimal until you're happy the animal is healthy and then do the Viv up. No need for another enclosure, the hearing and lights are the same regardless of quarantine or not then.
I'd still check a rspca rescue for my own ease of mind, but that's down to you. I don't know how competent the rspca is with reptiles, I have heard mixed reviews
Hmmm, but if it was intended to be a planted setup the plants could need a couple of weeks to settle in and put down roots before they're robust enough for something to roam all over them, so if you wanted to set up fully planted setup before the reptile arrived, you would need a separate quarantine place?
@@BooksMusicMe17 yeah in that case a separate rub or something makes sense
@@ReptilesandResearch And yeah, my fear with an animal from RSPCA or similar shelter would be that even if the checks were all done by arrangement with a specialist reptile vet when the animal was first rehabilitated, it only takes one careless/clueless volunteer to cross-contaminate by handling a newer arrival or its enclosure to reinfect the reptile before it is rehomed.